Alchemised
by SenLinYu
Contents
Chapter 49
Overview
A catastrophic ambush leaves Luc missing, Lila nearly dead from altered nullium, and Soren maimed and desperate. The attack exposes the Resistance’s fragility without Luc, forces Helena into manual surgery, and pushes Ilva toward using Kaine as a disposable rescue asset.
Kaine’s emotional rupture with Helena deepens when she brings him the order, and Soren independently assembles a risky rescue mission through hidden waterways. Helena joins despite recognising the plan’s danger, secretly sending Shiseo the mission details in hopes of warning Kaine or Ilva.
Summary
As winter deepens, Resistance Headquarters becomes grim after a devastating Undying assault on the East Island. Bombs destroy a wall and buildings, allowing necrothralls and chimaeras to pour in. Luc’s battalion is trapped for more than a day, losing many soldiers and medics before rescue; Luc and Lila return exhausted, while Soren, badly injured and traumatised, refuses to speak about what he saw.
Crowther reduces Helena’s meetings with Kaine to once a week. Kaine continues training Helena and passing intelligence, but he treats her with cold resentment after learning she helped make him a controlled asset. Helena accepts that she has become a collar around him, while her hospital work becomes an exhausting blur of fresh casualties and failed attempts to treat Titus.
Helena is called back from the Outpost to find Lila and Soren gravely injured and Luc missing. Lila has been stabbed near the neck with altered nullium, which blocks resonance far more intensely than expected. Because alchemical healing will not work, Helena and Matron Pace perform dangerous manual surgery, extracting a crumbling spike and shards from Lila’s chest cavity while trying to keep her alive until Shiseo can prepare a sequestering treatment.
While Lila remains unconscious, Ilva and other leaders interrogate Soren, who remembers an explosion, Luc’s disappearance, and Lila telling Luc to run. Helena stops the questioning because Soren has a head injury, then treats him privately and discovers he has lost his right eye. Soren is consumed by guilt for bringing Lila back instead of pursuing Luc, and Helena renders him unconscious to finish removing irreparable eye tissue. Rhea later grieves quietly over Soren and Lila, lamenting the damage done to her family.
At the Council meeting, the attack is reconstructed: Luc and Lila passed a condemned building just before it exploded, most of their unit died, signs of a fight were found, and Luc’s weapons were left behind. With no message from the Undying, Ilva insists Luc may still be alive and orders Helena to send Kaine on a critical mission to learn everything and recover Luc if possible. Helena meets Kaine at the Outpost, realises he did not know about Luc’s capture, and gives him the order, but when she tries to speak about their broken relationship, Kaine bitterly accuses her of becoming a new set of manacles.
Back at Headquarters, Helena finds Soren already organising an unauthorized rescue with Alister, Penny, Sebastian, and Sofia Purnell, Crowther’s hospital informant. Purnell claims to know of a secret prison accessible through West Island waterways, and Soren insists they must act before Ascendance worsens conditions and delays them. Soren asks Helena not only to heal Luc but to use any means necessary, even necromancy, if Soren dies; Helena reluctantly agrees for Luc’s sake. Before leaving, Helena rushes to gather medical supplies and gives Shiseo written details, asking him to warn Kaine at the Outpost or Ilva if he cannot, then rejoins the rescue party.
Who Appears
- Helena MarinoHealer who performs manual surgery, informs Kaine, and joins Luc’s rescue mission.
- Soren BayardInjured paladin who loses an eye and organizes an unauthorized rescue for Luc.
- Lila BayardPaladin grievously wounded by altered nullium while Luc disappears during the ambush.
- LucienResistance leader missing after an East Island ambush, prompting panic and rescue plans.
- Kaine FerronUndying asset ordered to find Luc; bitterly confronts Helena over his new bondage.
- IlvaResistance leader shaken by Luc’s disappearance and determined to use Kaine for answers.
- CrowtherStrategist whose informant and hidden influence appear behind Soren’s rescue opportunity.
- Matron PaceExperienced medical matron who leads Lila’s difficult manual nullium surgery.
- ElainHealer overwhelmed when nullium blocks resonance, then treats Soren’s survivable injuries.
- RheaMother of the Bayard twins who quietly grieves over Soren’s battered body.
- Sofia PurnellHospital orderly and Crowther informant who provides the prison route for Luc’s rescue.
- ShiseoAlchemist synthesising chelators whom Helena entrusts with secret rescue information.
- AlisterSurviving member of Luc’s unit who joins Soren’s rescue team and questions Helena’s usefulness.
- PennySurviving member of Luc’s unit who joins the armed rescue party.
- SebastianRescue conspirator who recognises Luc’s capture may have been planned for months.
- MatiasTraditionalist Council member who blames Lila’s paladin role before Ilva silences him.
- MaierAlchemical surgeon who assists with Lila’s operation and closes wounds with precise sutures.